Friday, December 31, 2010

I leave you with this tune from The Nolans, classic NYE track. So pull up your american apparel spandex pants and shake it!

I'm glad to have interacted with some great bloggers this year (you know who you are!) as a result of this blog, lets hope 2011 brings a lot more of that and some happiness my way (and yours dear reader!)

Put the cream in a pan over a medium heat and let it heat up. You don’t want it boiling, just hot. As soon as tiny bubbles start to appear add the knob of butter and the clementine zest.

Once the butter has melted pour this hot mixture over the chocolate pieces whisking as you go so the chocolate melts nice and slowly. If the mixture splits slightly, don’t worry, you can bring it right by adding a splash of boiling water. (Be very wary of adding hot water though!)

Add a pinch of salt to the mixture; it may sound bonkers, but the smallest pinch of salt actually makes chocolate taste even chocolatier! Stir in a splash of brandy.

Once completely melted and smooth, pour your melted chocolate mixture into a nice little serving dish or bowl. Pop this in the fridge for about 2 hours to set. Christmas is a busy time so you can always do this a few days before you need it if you want. About 30 minutes before you’re ready to make your truffles pull the bowl out of the fridge and let the chocolate warm up to room temperature.

Put your mixed nuts into a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to bash them up quite finely. Get some little saucers or bowls and put the nuts in one and your cocoa powder in the other. Put a teacup filled with boiled water on the tray and pop a few teaspoons in there for scooping the chocolate. Get everyone around the table to spoon their own truffles out of the serving dish and roll them in cocoa powder, crushed nuts or anything else you fancy. Or, you can let them smear their truffles over a biscotti like some posh Nutella! Serve with a few glasses of your chilled Vin Santo.

Of course, I'm on student budget so I haven't bottles of Vin Santo laying around, but this is a perfect treat for serving to relatives and friends that call over the festive season.

Oh and I actually ended up not using the cocoa powder in the end. These keep well in the fridge for a week, the nut coating loses its crunch after 2-3 days however.

This comes a bit late for Christmas day, but you've got New Years ahead of you and everyone loves finger food this time of year, so try it and let me know how you get on!

I'm even going to go far as to say that these are better than Ferrero Rocher because you made them yourself!

(crap photobooth picture because they were all eaten before I took a picture of them all prettied up! d'oh!)

ICING:300g Philadelphia cream cheese (I used mascarpone instead)150g icing sugar125ml double or whipping cream (I probably used only a third of this amount)

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line a 23cm springform tin.

(Melted butter and guinness mixture)

Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.

(Before adding the flour. Don't worry that the mixture seems watery, it'll all come together beautifully in the oven)

Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour.

(Typically there wasn't a decent sized cake tin in my house so I put the remainder into fairy cake cases)

Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.

When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.

Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

And if you're stuck with Guinness leftovers and you don't drink the white stuff yourself, theres always willing participants!

The finished product:

I got a bit snap happy! It was delicious, despite the small tin, I'm not one for icing usually, but this was smooth and with a kick. There was no Baileys in the house so I improvised and added a splash of:

Gin and tonic (almost) icing of course!

It got the Dad stamp of approval and his opinion of most things is "It's grand". Maybe he was being nice because it was my birthday.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

What I wore:The velvet skirt is from H&M and I love it because it reminds me of Joan's office Xmas party dress in season four of Mad Men.

I received a gorgeous forest green blazer and sensible dress from Zara that I had picked myself, an Italian made natural bristle hairbrush and plenty of socks (at my own request!) and a massive tote bag of Soap and Glory shower products which will keeping me ticking by quite nicely.

Tasteful or what?! No seriously, seasons greetings to you all! My Christmas tradition involves traipsing to mass this evening, no matter how i hope I'll wangle a way out of it, I end up going along all the same, then a feast tomorrow (I'm making baked butternut squash this year). Our pipes have frozen again this year, so I guess thats becoming a tradition too.

And I'm going to be a big cliché and point out this classic:

Be merry and be warm! I bought some Cork dry gin yesterday in preparation, it took me almost forty hours to get home so I'm going to make the most of it!

PS. Somehow I ended up nominated for Ireland's Top Fashion Blogger. Of course I'm not expecting anything but a few votes would flatter my ego. I'm number 50 on the list. Thank you!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Hurrah! My essays and presentations for this semester have all been handed in, bar one that's due in January. I can rest easy for a while.

Two weekends ago I took a break from the library and three of us dedicated the day to baking our Christmas cakes, it's tradition apparently. We brought the day forward and had a 'stir up saturday', which is the traditional day for preparing your Christmas pudding/cake it seems. We listened to classic Christmas tunes, for that day only, to get us in the mood and after a few hours our house smelt deliciously like Christmas.

Originally my housemate and I were going to use the Xmas cake recipe posted on The Archers website, but when she checked the night before, the page had disappeared, it seems that the website has has a revamp. So instead she found this alternative. All the meticulous planning and subsequent smooth running of this operation are all to her credit. I'm glad to be living with an enthusiastic baker!

Hannah mixing cake number three.

This cake called for so much fruit that we weren't sure if it would all fit in the tin, but blessedly it did!

First cake from the oven (after four and a half hours)

I prepared the parchment for the tins. The layer of newspaper is to insulate the cake tin so it doesn't cook too quickly. I think it looks quite sweet and nostalgic all tied up with string.

Sitting proudly, admiring my handiwork.

My cake, unwrapped and doused with brandy.

William and Kate keeping my cake free from dust overnight.

My housemate and I are impatient for the chance to start eating this, but theres four weeks to go yet.

Most of the pictures were taken on Hannah's Panasonic DMC-L10, so much sharper quality and colours!

That evening with cake number three safely deposited in the oven, we went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I and I was not disappointed.

small town girl

Zoë, 24 year old art history graduate, from Sligo, Ireland. Searching for culture in the West of Ireland and beyond. Writes about the arts, culture, film and feminism. "The one thing I regret is that I will never have time to read all the books I want to read." (Francoise Sagan)(About)